A Disquiet Follows My Soul
by JimKirk1
Summary: Pretty much what I think's going to happen next in Star Trek. When Kirk experiences dreams about his father, he wants to find out what they're about. When he gets thrown into a bigger situation than he realized, Kirk has to find his way out of it, and find out exactly what those dreams meant.
1. Nightmares

A Disquiet Follows my Soul

Chapter 1

A.N: Pretty much what I think will happen in the next Star Trek movie.

* * *

"Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives. Including yours. I dare you to do better."

* * *

Kirk opened his eyes. He looked around, but stood there, not believing nor trusting his surroundings. Another Starfleet crewmember sat in the Captain's chair, who he recognized immediately. Dad, Kirk thought, though he had never met him. George Kirk walked over to the Helmsman console, and set the autopilot to ram the ship into the Narada, but the autopilot was broken. George sighed, then gave a long look at the console, and made up his mind, setting the ship on a collision course.

Kirk wanted to help him, stay with him, talk with him, to do anything with his father. But he knew he couldn't. George sat back down in the Captain's chair as sparks flew and consoles exploded around him and the ship shook violently. Kirk stood off to the side, watching the spectacle as the ship's final moments played out. Then he heard the cries of a newborn baby, and knew instinctively that it was him. George opened a channel to the shuttle carrying the much younger Kirk, and his wife said,

"It's a boy."

Kirk shook his head in amazement, then asked, "A boy?"

Winona Kirk simply nodded, not noticed by George.

"What should we call him?" George asked.

"Let's name him after your father," Winona suggested. George laughed, then replied,

"Tiberius? No, that's a terrible name! Let's name him after your father.

Let's call him... Jim."

"Jim," Winona said, rolling the name over her tongue, thinking whether it was a good name. George interrupted her thoughts.

"Sweetheart, can you hear me?" George said, as the ship neared the

Narada and Kirk stood back, watching the whole thing unfold in front of his eyes. He knew this was a dream, but couldn't believe how vivid it was.

"Yeah?" Winona sobbed out, realizing what was about to happen, Kirk trying to blink back tears, and George struggling to stay in the chair as fires burned on the Bridge, and the screen cracked, and the remaining consoles exploding violently.

George looked back, and got a good look at Kirk, and realized who it was.

He turned to face the viewscreen, knowing that his son would live and follow his footsteps.

"I love you so much," George said as the ship was about to hit the

Narada. "I love you-" and was interrupted when the ship hit, throwing him and Kirk across the bridge.

Then silence.

* * *

Kirk woke up with a start, bracing for a collision that wouldn't happen. He took a good look around the room. He was in his quarters, with Beastie Boys playing in the background. He sighed, realizing that he wouldn't be getting a good night's sleep, and got up.

* * *

5 minutes later, he walked onto the Bridge of the U.S.S Enterprise, NCC-1701-A, the next one after the original was destroyed over Altamid. He walked in, then briefly said,

"Spock, you have the conn," then walked out again, leaving Spock confused. McCoy grunted, rolled his eyes, then walked out to follow him, Carol Marcus not long after.

* * *

Kirk sat in the Enterprise's new bar, which was built afterwards at the insistence of several people, the Captain included. He was drinking a random drink he found on the table when McCoy walked in, Carol a few seconds after.

"Something wrong Jim?" McCoy asked. He then noticed Carol standing next to him, and gestured for her to leave. She didn't budge. Kirk simply said,

"They're back."

McCoy stood there, dumbfounded, but Carol knew.

"The nightmares," she said.

"The one and only," Kirk said. His next words chilled both McCoy and Marcus.

"Something bad's going to happen. I can feel it. It's only a matter of time before it does."


	2. A Change of Plans

A Disquiet Follows my Soul

Chapter 2

* * *

"What the hell do you mean, something bad? And what nightmares?" McCoy asked pointedly.

Carol explained.

"The Captain's been having nightmares. About his father," she said.

"Wait a minute. George Kirk? He's dead, Jim, and been dead for a long time," McCoy said. Kirk shook his head.

"No. Not quite. Maybe it's some temporal loophole, or an alternate reality or something, but I can FEEL it," he said, emphasizing his words with gentle banging on the table with his drink. McCoy shook his head.

"Well, it's not like we can just travel back in time and stop this from happening. The event that led to his death created our reality in the first place. We all know that, Spock most of all. I mean, he met his own goddamn mirror image of himself," McCoy finished talking. Kirk still looked forlorn, and Carol just looked concerned. McCoy sighed, then walked out. Carol lingered, then, with a somewhat sad face, she left too. Now alone again, Kirk muttered,

"All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again."

* * *

A few hours later, he walked onto the Bridge, his focus on his new assignment. Simple in theory, very difficult in practice. Mediate a border dispute between the Romulan Star Empire and the Klingon Empire. Surprisingly, both agreed to let the Federation mediate the dispute. Kirk likened it to a progression of relations between all three interstellar powers.

"Alright, Mr. Sulu," Kirk said as he sat down in his chair. "Set a course for Nimbus III. Warp Factor 6." Sulu turned back to face his console.

"Yes, Sir," Sulu said, as he disengaged the external inertial dampener and input the coordinates. He then turned slightly to the left to face the switch to engage the warp drive. He put his hand on it, then pushed it to the designated setting, and the Enterprise warped away in a dazzling streak of light and ambient blue crystals.

* * *

Kirk sat in the chair as the ship traveled through subspace at several hundred times the speed of light. The ship was set on course to Nimbus, and was expected to arrive in about 2-3 hours. Kirk decided to relax a bit, and walked off to the bar for a Budweiser.

* * *

Kirk walked into the bar, which had about 20 people in it. Kirk looked around, then made a beeline for the bar. Sitting down, he ordered a Budweiser, smiled, then sat down to drink. He was then interrupted when the ship shook, and he was thrown out of his seat.

"Ow," Kirk managed to say, before the stoll fell on him, too. "Ow," he said again, before whipping out his communicator and hailing the Bridge.

"Mr. Spock, what's going on?" he asked.

Spock wasted no time in replying, "We've encountered a thermobaric cloud barrier that was not picked up on sensors, and is not on the star charts. We've sustained only minor damage to three plasma injectors and disrupted the intermix ratio of the matter/antimatter reactor." Kirk was about to ask more when Mr. Scott interrupted him

"Captain, what's going on up there? You blew out three plasma injectors, and I cannae replace them while the warp core is still operational," he said.

"Is that bad?" Kirk asked. He somehow sensed that Scotty was nodding.

"Aye, Captain. The plasma injectors feed plasma directly into the intermix chamber, and without an input of plasma, we cannae get a matter/antimatter reaction out of the reactor, which means that we'll have to run on only two injectors, which brings down our speed to Warp Factor Two."

Kirk frowned. He started walking towards the Bridge. "Is there anything we can do? Don't we have spares?"

Scotty snorted. "We haven't docked at a starbase for over 4 months, and these were the spares. You blew out the original ones three weeks ago, trying to warp around the sun at maximum speed," Scotty said as he walked towards where the blown injectors were. "I warned you, and you still did it. We were left almost adrift for 5 hours, while I was trying to install spares." Kirk cut him off.

"Alright. Where's the nearest starbase?" Kirk asked, referring to Spock, and ending his talk with Scotty.

"The Starbase Deep Space Station K-7 is closest, only 12 light-years from our current position, though it is directly on the opposite side of the thermobaric cloud. Starbase Yorktown is about 18 light-years out, but we are not required to enter the cloud." Kirk considered his choices. K-7 was closer, but they'd have to enter the cloud barrier. Yorktown was farther away, but it was safer to go there. He made his choice.

"Mr. Sulu, set course for Stargaze Yorktown. Maximum possible warp factor." Sulu nodded, and turned to look at Chekov, who also nodded, and input a course for Yorktown. Sulu checked it over, nodded one more time, and gripped the handle. Pushing it forward, he commanded the ship to jump to warp. The Enterprise's warp nacelles lit up, glowed brightly for a moment, then flashed away in a trail of blue crystals.

* * *

The Enterprise sailed through space at Warp Factor 2.5, headed for Starbase Yorktown. Kirk sat near a window on the Observation Deck.

"Beautiful view, isn't it, Captain?" a person said, startling Kirk. He turned to face the person behind him. He was a middle-aged man, wearing a strange piece of clothing resembling a robe. He had receding hair and and also a sense of superiority. Kirk had no idea who this person was.

"I'm sorry. Do I know you?" Kirk asked. The man simply smiled.

"You might not know me, but I know everything about you, Captain James Tiberius Kirk," the man said. Kirk had the sudden feeling of apprehension. He stiffened.

"What do you mean?" Kirk asked, as his hand casually went down, to rest by the holster of his phaser. But the man took a completely different approach than Kirk expected.

"Do you know Jean-Luc Picard? No, I don't think you do. You would have never met him in your lifetime," the man said. Kirk unclipped the phaser from the holster, but didn't pull it out. The man didn't notice.

"Now, he and I had an argument about the human race, and the debate was whether the human race had evolved from their previous, savage state. Picard thought otherwise, and we went through a few… tests. When I left, I told him that humanity's trial never ends. Now I'm here, to test that." Kirk pulled the phaser out of his holster. _This man's lost it,_ Kirk thought. The man simply smiled, and the phaser disappeared. Kirk stared at his now empty hand in shock.

"Can't have any of that here. You'll find a surprise about your plasma injectors. Mr. Scott will now explain it to you." At that moment, Kirk pulled out his communicator, and Mr. Scott hailed him right after.

"Captain, I just found a whole shipping crate full of plasma injectors. There's enough in here to last us for the next 20 years. They'll be installed in the next 15 minutes, Scott out." Scotty said as he cut the transmission. Kirk put away the communicator and looked at the man in surprise. The man smiled again.

"As I said, Captain, humanity's trial is never over," the man said as Kirk suddenly felt the ship shake, and his vision swim. The man said one last thing before Kirk went unconscious.

"I haven't told you my name yet, have I? How rude. My name is Q."


	3. The First Trial, Part One

A Disquiet Follows my Soul

Chapter 3

Kirk lay down, his eyes still shut against the world, against the bright light that was trying to nearly blind him. A distant noise stirred him. Rolling over, he finally opened his eyes, and looked around.

He was in a white room, with ambient light flooding in from everywhere. There were no visible light fixtures, and nothing save Q, who was standing in the middle of the room. Smiling down at Kirk, he lifted his hand, and Kirk felt invisible hands lift him up into standing position. Getting back on his feet, he stood there, stoically watching Q with a mixed expression of fear and suppressed anger. Both stood there for a second, not saying anything. Kirk was the first to break the silence.

"What do you want from me?" Kirk asked, which drew a smile onto Q's face.

"Quite simple, Captain. We're here to see whether humanity is worthy of living," Q said. Kirk said nothing. Impulsively reaching for his phaser, he noticed it wasn't there. _Oh, yeah_ , Kirk thought. _He took it._

Q nodded again, having quickly checked over Kirk's thoughts. "Yes, Captain. If you remember correctly, I took your phaser. You won't get another until the situation arises. Now, we've tarried far too long. The first task is at hand. Are you ready, Captain?" Q asked. Kirk mentally braced himself.

"What about my crew?" Kirk asked. "Are they alright?"

"Oh, they're fantastic. They haven't come to harm at all, even when the Klingons attacked your ship. I simply threw the Klingons a couple dozen light years. No problem. Now, onto the first task!" Q said, as Kirk suddenly felt extremely dizzy, and collapsed, unconscious.

* * *

Kirk woke up in his quarters. Looking around, he sighed with relief, seeing that Q wasn't there. Q's next words dispelled that notion.

" _Do not think you've escaped my eye, Captain. I'm always watching. Oh,_ " Q said. " _Someone's about to enter your room._ "

Kirk had barely enough time to put on a uniform before Spock entered. Kirk sighed.

"Spock, could you please refrain from barging into my room randomly?" Sock gave Kirk a quizzical look.

"Forgive me if I had offended you in any way, Captain, but urgent matters beg to be prioritized." Kirk now gave Spock a quizzical look.

"What is it?" Kirk asked, to which Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Starbase K-13 has disappeared."

* * *

Kirk nearly tripped and fell as he slipped on a pair of pants he had left on the ground.

"Starbase K-13? Gone?" Kirk said, with a large dose of disbelief, but dreading the truth of the matter.

"It disappeared off our star charts at approximately 2300 hours, merely 8 hours, 17 minutes, and 32 seconds ago. There has been no distress beacon, nor any communications from the station," Spock elaborated. Kirk shook his head.

"So we're going to go there, and find out what made it disappear." Spock nodded.

"Precisely."

* * *

Kirk walked onto the bridge, and noticed a couple minor differences. They were minor enough not to draw too much attention to, but were noticeable, nonetheless. He checked his own uniform. The color was slightly lighter, ever so slightly, and the high collar was now lower on his neck, decreasing his discomfort with his previous uniform. The Bridge was also slightly different, Kirk noticed. The consoles were sleeker, and the lighting was a little lighter than he was used to, on the Enterprise-A. _Then again,_ Kirk thought, _This is the Enterprise-A. Albeit slightly different._

He also noticed that Chekov wasn't there at his usual console. _Did he get transferred,_ Kirk mentally asked himself. _Or did something happen to him? I'll check the ship computers later._

"Alright. Lieutenant, set a course for the last confirmed location of Starbase K-13. Maximum Warp."

"Yes, Sir." He didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Course laid in, Sir."

Kirk nodded. "Punch it," he said to Mr. Sulu, who nodded, and activated the warp drive, as the Enterprise's nacelles, glowed brightly. The ship stretched to absurd lengths, the nacelles glowing even brighter, then warped away, the nacelles leaving dainty streamers of sky blue crystals.

* * *

The Enterprise sailed through subspace, traveling several hundred times the speed of light. Kirk looked at the viewscreen, and looked at the stars as they sped rapidly by as if they were fleeting fireflies. He remembered something he had wanted to ask.

"Lieutenant, what's your name?" Kirk asked, gesturing towards the man at the navigation console. The man turned around, and, with a lopsided grin, replied,

"Lieutenant Gary Mitchell."

* * *

Several hours later, the Enterprise dropped out of warp. With a violent deceleration, the Enterprise slowed from warp, into sublight speed, to hover in the far outer orbit of a large gas giant.

"We've dropped out of warp, Captain," Mitchell reported. Kirk nodded, and ordered,

"Onscreen."

Mr. Sulu nodded, then quickly put what the optical cameras on the ship saw onto the viewscreen.

The starbase wasn't there.

* * *

Kirk shook his head.

"Where is it?" Kirk asked. Spock merely shrugged, something he picked up from being on shore leave on Earth for several months.

"Uncertain, Captain. There is no indication of any combat of an sort, though there is some scattered hull plating, and an unusual amount of tachyons around the planet's ring systems," Spock said.

"Captain, the tachyon emissions have spiked, and we've lost power on deck 21," Mr. Scott reported. "I don't even have anything to check tachyon emissions, but they've gotten so high, they're registering on literally every sensor the ship has! Even the optical!"

Kirk's eyes widened. Even he knew that tachyon emissions popping up on optical sensors wasn't normal. It was abnormal. And that last time something was abnormal, the ship was destroyed…

"Mr. Sulu, hard port turn, plane down 45 degrees, and get us out of here. Maximum Warp," Kirk ordered. Mr. Sulu nodded, then started putting in commands, telling the computer to do exactly what Kirk wanted the ship to do. Spock shook his head.

"Captain, the tachyon emissions prevent our ship from achieving warp factors about Warp Factor 2, and if we do decide to go to warp, the subspace bubble will interact with the space around us in a way as to create a subspace tear, and pull us in," Spock deliberated. Kirk shook his head.

"We'll never get anywhere at impulse, and we'll be stuck here otherwise." Kirk sighed. "We'll try impulse, though. Mr. Sulu, belay that order, and proceed at full impulse speed."

Mr. Sulu nodded, and canceled the last command he put in, and replaced it with the new one. The ship powered down its warp nacelles, and diverted power towards the impulse engines. Suddenly, things took a turn for the worse.

"Captain, the impulse engines are working, but we're being pulled backwards!" Mr. Sulu said. Kirk was surprised, and worried as the ship shook and the noise of shattering glass permeated the air.

"Captain, the impulse engines have agitated the tachyons so that they have created a subspace tear." Kirk was interrupted abruptly by Mr. Scott.

"Captain, the impulse engines are being fried! You have to cut the power to them, or else they'll detonate, and take the ship with it!" Mr. Scott yelled, as he ran across the deck where the impulse engines were mounted. As the ship shook, he was thrown violently through the air, to land on one of the fusion reactors, which were suspended several feet off the ground. After shaking off the dizziness, he jumped to the ground, spraining his ankle in the process. A reactor exploded nearby, sending glowing plasma and metal shrapnel everywhere, gutting and melting several crewmen, who cried out in agony and terror. Mr. Scott looked at the dead and dying crewmen, then limped over to the override controls and manually cut power to the reactors.

* * *

"Captain, the impulse engines have shut down, and power to Main Engineering just cut off," Mr. Sulu said. Mitchell was still trying to help in any way he could. He was setting new coordinates in case warp was reactivated, trying to cold-restart the impulse engines, and also trying to stop the inexorable rampage of power outages and failures happening throughout the ship. That was not to be.

As he was trying to bring auxiliary power back on on Deck 6, the ship shook violently, much more than the last several times. Mitchell had barely enough time to scream before the console in front of him exploded in a loud report, showering sparks and molten metal everywhere, and throwing him out of his seat, and onto the ground, where he lay, unconscious.

Kirk got out of his chair to check on Mitchell, but right then the ship shook even harder, and threw him off balance, and he hit his head on the edge on a console, knocking him out as the ship finally lost all power and fell into the subspace tear, and into the unknown.


	4. Friend or Foe?

A Disquiet Follows my Soul

Chapter 4

Kirk got up woozily, as if he had drank a little too much and was nursing a hangover.

 _Pull it together, Jim,_ he thought. _I have to prove Q wrong._

He looked around the ship, satisfied that the Bridge was largely intact, with only a few things scattered, and most of the crew conscious. Kirk saw Mitchell, lying there on the ground, a large bruise on his head, and not moving. He crawled over to him, but was cut off by Bones.

"Jim, I got it," Bones said, as he quickly procured a stretcher and, with the help of a couple others, carried him away to Med Bay.

Kirk and most of the others then managed to get into their respective positions on the Bridge. Kirk leaned back in his chair, sighed, and said,

"Mr. Sulu, damage report."

Sulu's eyes darted across his display as he digested the information being presented at him rapidly, before the computer compiled most of the information into relatively neat sections.

"Minor structural damage throughout the ship, and a few leaks on Decks 3, 7, 15, and 18-21. Equipment in Med Bay's all over the place, but they're cleaning that up. Shield generators are shaky, but we'll take care of that soon. Weapons are online, and phaser banks charged. Hull plating is mostly intact, though some crumpling, and the deflector dish is online," Sulu said. Kirk nodded.

"Mr. Spock," Kirk said, turning to face the Science Console. "Any news?"

Spock looked over the display.

"We appear to be over Halkan, but with a drastically different surface and biosphere than expected. Sensors indicate several craters, scorch marks, and crust disintegration throughout the planet, along with very few life-signs. There also appears to be-"

"Captain! Ship approaching at Warp Factor 5, bearing 3-5-4, bearing 3-4-2!" Sulu reported. Kirk's expression hardened.

"Turn the ship about to align with the approach vector. Raise shields, and secure equipment in Med Bay. Charge weapons, and prepare to load torpedoes into the launchers," Kirk ordered, as Sulu's fingers flew across the console as he complied with his demands.

The viewscreen switched to an optical sensor on the fore of the ship, granting the Bridge crew full view of the area in front of the ship.

"Ship arriving in 3… 2… 1… Now."

* * *

The ship Kirk was facing was one that he never thought he'd see again. At least in person.

Her primary hull was circular, but less streamlined than the Enterprise's. She had a long, slender neck, with slicked back edges that slowly disappeared into the Secondary Hull. Her pylons were heavyset, yet gentle, blunt in the front and tapering off in the back, and the nacelles were large, larger than the Enterprise's nacelles and tapered off quickly towards the end, ending with a sleek set of warp fins. Her Engineering section was relatively bulky, with a clearly defined midsection that abruptly at the Hangar Bay, and a deflector dish that clearly stood out on the Secondary Hull, signifying it as an older version of the Enterprise's own. Kirk's hands tightened on his chair armrests, and his expression became that of wistfulness, and regret. Most of the crew's expressions were of similar magnitude as they realized what the ship in front of them was.

The Enterprise.

* * *

Kirk looked over the entire ship, inspecting every detail of it, remembering every curve, and noticing every minor difference.

He remembered this version of the Enterprise. This was the one from before his five-year mission, before the ship was heavily damaged in-

 _Shit,_ Kirk thought, as he looked farther up the ship, and noticed for the first time the yellow claw-like markings on the Primary Hull, and the yellow sword being thrust through the Earth, and realized what the ship stood for. _Not again._

"Captain, we're being hailed," Sulu said, breaking the silence on the Bridge. Kirk nodded.

"Onscreen," he said.

The window view changed to the inside of the other Enterprise's Bridge, and a view of a man Kirk had met once before, but wished never to meet again.

"Hello, Captain," Spock Mirror said. "We have much to discuss."


End file.
